Systematic Review and Future Direction of Neuro-Tourism Research

Abstract

Neuro-tourism is the application of neuroscience in tourism to improve marketing methods of the tourism industry by analyzing the brain activities of tourists. Neuro-tourism provides accurate real-time data on tourists’ conscious and unconscious emotions. Neuro-tourism uses the methods of neuromarketing such as brain–computer interface (BCI), eye-tracking, galvanic skin response, etc., to create tourism goods and services to improve tourist experience and satisfaction. Due to the novelty of neuro-tourism and the dearth of studies on this subject, this study offered a comprehensive analysis of the peer-reviewed journal publications in neuro-tourism research for the previous 12 years to detect trends in this field and provide insights for academics. We reviewed 52 articles indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) core collection database and examined them using our suggested classification schema. The results reveal a large growth in the number of published articles on neuro-tourism, demonstrating a rise in the relevance of this field. Additionally, the findings indicated a lack of integrating artificial intelligence techniques in neuro-tourism studies. We believe that the advancements in technology and research collaboration will facilitate exponential growth in this field.

Demystifying neurotourism: An interdisciplinary approach and research agenda

“…They are technologies that can be used together with neuroscience techniques, either to deliver experiences for its own sake, or to induce experiences as part of an experimental study. Another instance can be found in the systematic review conducted by Al-Nafjan et al (2023). In their attempt to explore the neurotourism concept by searching for keywords in the WoS Core Collection related to neuroscientific methods applied to tourism, they include the term "artificial intelligence (AI)".…”

“…In this context, Koseoglu (2016) also contends that bibliometric studies illuminate previously unrecognized patterns within research fields or disciplines, assisting researchers in formulating theories and examining hypotheses. To our knowledge, the study conducted by Al-Nafjan et al (2023) is the sole instance of a systematic review applied to the field of neurotourism. Nonetheless, the keyword search parameters revolved around "tourism", "neuroscience", and "artificial intelligence", with the substitution of "neuroscience, neuromarketing, and neuroscientific" by terms like "eye tracking", "skin conductance", "EEG", "electroencephalography", "heart rate", "fMRI", and "emotion" or "affective computing".…”

Advancements in arena technology: Enhancing customer experience and employee adaptation in the tourism and hospitality industry

“…Virtual reality, automation, robots, and artificial intelligence [74] have dominated the delivery of futuristic services to the general public, yet they are limited by human creativity, which is not possible without it [75] . Based on inputs and programming, the majority of self-service interfaces at various hotels and restaurants, offer customers a pleasant experience [76] . However, these third-generation interfaces cannot satisfy the needs of the consumer beyond those applications and program data [77,78] .…”

Shaping the Future of Destinations: New Clues to Smart Tourism Research from a Neuroscience Methods Approach

“…In this way, the interdisciplinary approach is an important part of the new keys to understanding the smart tourism experiences in the 21st century. However, despite the numerous bibliometric and literature review studies published recently on the application of neuroscientific methods to tourism (e.g., Al-Nafjan et al 2023;Li et al 2023;Cardoso et al 2024), a gap persists in approaches, with none of them connecting the constructs with a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective to answer the following question: How do neuroscientific methods contribute to advancing smart tourism and shaping the future of tourism destinations?…”